Mountain View, CA, October 1, 2002 The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) announced today that it has changed its name to the Wi-Fi Alliance. The name change is effective immediately.
Wi-Fi has become such a globally recognized brand, and it is time that the organizations name becomes consistent with the brand that it promotes, said Wi-Fi Alliance chairman Dennis Eaton. When the Wi-Fi Alliance was founded in late August of 1999, no one ever dreamed that Wi-Fi would take off to the level that it has. Now, it only makes sense that the name of the organization reflects the brand that the world has come to know, continued Eaton.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has changed significantly since it was founded three years ago. We started with six founding companies on August 3,1999. In the following months we added eleven charter members. Today, there are eleven companies on the Wi-Fi Alliance board and over 170 Wi-Fi Alliance members from around the world However, we are most proud of the overwhelming desire of the industry to assure product interoperability for their customers through Wi-Fi certification. This has allowed the industry take off from a handful of products in early 2000 to where we are now with 450 Wi-Fi certified products in ten categories. During this period of time, the Wi-Fi Alliance has also changed its original focus from primarily being on the business enterprise to meeting the needs of a more diverse industry, said Wi-Fi Alliance chairman Dennis Eaton.
Editors Note:
JPEG and EPS files of the new logo are available upon request by media and analysts.
See Wi-Fi at WPCExpo
Wi-Fi wireless LANs will be on display at WPCExpo (Booth E4502), October 16-19, in Tokyo, Japan.
Wi-Fi wireless LANs will be on display at COMDEX (Booth 2954), November 18-22, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
About the Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a nonprofit organization formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products and to promote them as the global, wireless LAN standard across all market segments.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has instituted a test suite that defines how member products are tested to certify that they are interoperable with other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. These tests are conducted at an independent laboratory.
Membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance is open to all companies that support the 802.11 family of standards. Wi-Fi Alliance now comprises over 170 members that offer over 450 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products from the worlds leading companies.
For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org.
